Beautiful Weekend

We've had a fabulous weekend!  We celebrated David's 8th birthday yesterday with a bounce obstacle course and several friends.

Today we ran some errands, David used some of his birthday money, and I planted our flowers.  We're planning to have a Welcome Home/5th Birthday party for Katie this summer when our family from Massachusetts is here.  I want our flowers to be big and full when we have our party, so I planted this weekend.  Our weather has been fantastic, and I hope I haven't planted too early!

I LOVE these big pinwheels.

I put them in the urns on my front porch.

I'm going to fill these in with a tall something in the back and a trailing something in the front.  The selection at the store is pretty limited still.

We planted a zucchini plant and a yellow squash plant too!

I hope your weekend was great!

House Goals for 2012

You may remember this post where I listed all of our to-do things for our house.  Um, it's a long freaking list.  Let's review and see what's been done.  I've added new goals (re-wrote immediate goals) in red, which I hope to finish this year:

Kitchen

• Paint
• Backsplash
• Install garbage disposal
• Under cabinet lighting
• Secure toe kick trim
• Finish restoring island
• Flip laundry room door to open into Laudry room
• Stainless fridge?
• Farm sink?

Breakfast Room

• Install bead board and trim
• Repair cracks in wall
• Paint
• Paint hutch
• Farm table
• Repair threshold
• Replace chandelier light fixture
• Paint globe light fixtures
• Repair/Replace cracked window
• Fix leak in roof.  Again.
• Replace back door?
• Add storm or screen door
• Upholstered seating on one side of table?

Living room

• Weather strip for door
• Paint vents
• Repair phone jack
• Hide cords
• Touch up crown molding
• Drop leaf table
• Find another drum table for the other side of the couch
• Reupholster chair cushions.  Or just get rid of the couch.
• Replace coffee table with ottoman or more appropriate table.
• Family tree art/project 
• Hang silver trays

Dining room

• Paint vent covers
• Install crowm molding
• Rug?
• Recover chairs
• Replace light fixture

Master Bedroom

• Paint
• Build out closet
• New bedding
• Paint wardrobe
• Artwork
• Do something with the fireplace surround.  Paint?  Strip?  Tile?
• Repair floor by window
• Replace window pane.  (Ahem, Chris. . . )

Entry/Staircase/Computer landing

• Hang mirror or artwork by front door
• Reupholster bench.  Or get rid of it.
• Bookcase under stairs
• Paint
• Replace doorbell
• Small rug for computer area
• Address chandelier. . . clean crystals, replace bulbs, clean fixture without killing myself.  Or replace with a larger fixture.
• Replace attic ladder with a metal ladder.
• Paint ceiling.

Small downstairs hall

• Paint
• Make shelving a bookcase
• Paint inside wall of bookcase
• Replace light fixture

Playroom

• Paint
• New curtains
• Organize closet
• Clean rug
• Recover loveseat (replaced it instead)
• Make/Hang chalkboard
• Add another bookcase or costume storage
• Hang art display system
• Clean out/donate books

Boys' room

• Paint
• Organize closet
• Add a dresser
• Hang photos or art
• Update photo collages
• Matching bedding
• Bedskirt for David's bed
• Rug?
• Hang wall lighting
• Replace overhead fixture?

Guest room

• Address fireplace.  Convert to gas? (We've decided to leave it as is right now - I don't think a gas fireplace and a five year old developmentally delayed child are the best combination in a bedroom.)
• Strip/paint/tile/something fireplace surround.  We cleaned this up, and I think we're leaving it as is for now.  We need to secure the screen, and call it a day.
• Hang mirror or art over fireplace
• Clean transom
• Paint
• Curtains
• New bedding?
• Rug?
• Art?
• Closet shelving and hanging system
• Lampshade for black lamp
• Cushion or pillows for window seat
• Add crown molding
• Fix loose outlets

Laundry room

• Cabinets over washer and dryer
• Add a cabinet for linen storage
• Paint
• Hanger for brooms, etc.
• Reroute pump to outside
• Install back door
• Clean/paint light fixtures

Patio

• Rug
• Figure out the light.  Make it work.
• Paint concrete?
• Rework the seating to make it more of an outdoor room
• New patio furniture
• Paint the flower stand.  Or love it the way it is.
• Paint candle holder/lantern thingy
• Add a stair?
• Add concrete planters?
• Hang flower holders
• Window box

Exterior

• Side the remainder of the house.  Yikes.
• Paint.
• Repair trim above front windows
• Replace upstairs windows
• Gutter/French drain system
• Reinsulate crawl space
• Repair loose roof panel(s)
• Pressure wash porch
• Paint porch floor, stairs, and rails
• Re-do porch columns?
• Replace front light
• Clean weeds off of front of house
• Make crawl space opening larger
• Clean/paint lattice under porch. 
• Trim out lattice
• Add back door to laundry room

Yard

• Fence back yard
• Cut down tree?
• Massive yard clean up
• Remove kennel after fencing is put up
• Weed killer on front walk  This will be an on-going project.
• Prune bushes
• Plant a garden
• Add two more bushes along the side of the porch
• Rip out three small ugly bushes near patio.
• Rip out two little trees in island area.
• Electricity to the shed?

Dream List/Far in the Future

• Build a detached garage
• Finish the attic and add another 1000+ square feet
• Add a second bathroom

Updated House Photos

We had to take several photos of our house to include in our dossier information for our adoption. 

I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the progress we've made since we bought the house ten months ago.

We've managed to keep ourselves (OK, Chris) pretty busy.

Our backyard is looking pretty decent, despite the ring created by the horses we had at our birthday party in April.

We've replaced this patio set since these pictures were taken with a new (to us) rectangular table with six chairs.  The table and chairs need to be painted, and I will get new cushions.  Photos to come when that project is completed!

Nothing has changed in our breakfast room.  I am on the hunt for a small loveseat or sofa to put under the windows, and I'll remove two chairs from the table.  I was going to take the one from our office when we got a church pew to replace it, but the pew is miniature and won't be adequate seating for our clients.  I will likely just wait until we replace the couch at our office and take that, because it's the perfect size (and even material) to go in this space.

Kitchen is still the same.  I still haven't painted the island table.  And I still haven't added a backsplash.  We did change the curtains over the sink.  We took down the panels and added some bamboo shades.  I will put these on the breakfast room windows too, but there are never enough in the size I need at the store when I go looking for them.

Our master bedroom remains unchanged from pretty much the day we unpacked, with the exception of the new armoire.

My fabulous friend Kelly had a baby and couldn't use this black armoire in the baby's room.  She asked if we could use it.  If we could pick it up, we could have it.  Um, hello.  We picked it up.  It's a Pottery Barn armoire that was originally a tv cabinet.  I really wanted to be able to use it in the playroom, but it weighs approximately 1,378,385,098.4 pounds and there was no. way. that was going up the stairs.  So Chris altered it to store clothes, and it's perfect in this space.  I'm toying with the idea of painting the rest of our bedroom furniture black to match and painting our walls gray.  I would love to do gray walls with yellow and white accents in this room.  I promise it will probably be the last room to complete.

I still typically have our couch covered with the slipcover.  Thankfully it's machine washable, because it spends about 25% of it's time in the washing machine. 

We've painted the entry, and I love it.  We will use the same paint upstairs at the computer area and in the hallway.

And I'm still SO glad we've removed the stained glass panel and replaced with clear glass.

I've considereded moving the computer down to our entry and making this a sitting area.  That could still happen since I recently discovered in our computer history the googling of some inappropriate words. . . and Jack got blamed for it despite the fact that he is unable to spell.

No changes here.  I can't make up my mind.  And I feel like as soon as I decorate this room they will change their minds about what they're interested in.

No change in the laundry room either.  And I promise there won't be for a looong time.

I wasn't bold enough to go orange in the entire playroom.

I just couldn't do it.

I'm thinking either a gray or a khaki for the other three walls.  For now, we're a happy shade of cream.  And holding strong.

The curtains are a good-enough-for-now option.

Next up?  Finishing Katie Ruth's room, then probably on to some beadboard and wainscotting in the breakfast room!

Urn't You In Love?!

I am obsessed with urns.  OBSESSED.  I look at every house I drive past to see if they have urns and, if they do, what they have in them.  I think they look so classic and pretty.  I snagged some old, old concrete urns from the farm at my in-laws' house, and they're beautiful.  They're on our patio right now.

My sweet mother-in-law also gave me this planter.  Right now it's full of a tomato plant that is a bit of an experiment for us, and a flower that David planted from a seed he got at Boy Scouts in the spring.  He's very proud to see it has actually grown!  In the fall I will plant some marigolds in it, and in the winter I'll do some small evergreen.

I was thrilled to get these old urns, but I really wanted two that matched for my front porch.  I've moved the planters we had by the back door to the steps of our porch on the front of the house.  I'm pretty sure this porch is one of my absolute favorite parts of our house.

I wanted some big matching urns for the front porch to put out when it's too cold to leave my palms out anymore.  Have you ever priced urns?  They are ridiculously expensive.  I really didn't care if they were concrete or plastic, and planned to search for some at yard sales.  Thanks to the internet, I found some at Kmart.  Yes folks, Kmart.  I love the blog 320 Sycamore, and she posted several weeks ago about the urns she found at Kmart.  I sort of forgot about them, but headed in last week to check it out.  Oh. My. Goodness.  They are great!  They're the perfect shape, and come in two sizes.  I bought a large set and a small set.  The large will go on the front porch, the small by the back door.  I've already got my small set out.  

Aren't they great?  I love them!  And guess how much they cost. . . the small size was $6.49 each.  I'm going to get some of the smaller size for inside I love them so much.  I'm also thinking about getting another larger set for inside at Christmas to put some of my trees in.  The large size?  $11.49.  Eleven dollars people!  If it chips?  Not a problem - spray paint it.  I realize I have a slight obsession with these, but I am in love with some plastic urns.

Something else I'm in love with?  How much our flowers and plants have grown this summer.  It is amazing what some water and plant food will do.  It makes me so happy to sit on my porch with all of our plants or sit on the patio and see them.  

We've Been Busy!

We've added a new (to us) screen door to the back door.

(Thank you craigslist.)

And our flowers are growing so well.

It's amazing what some water will do.

I planted some more flowers on the patio.

Love them.

We've replaced the stained glass in our front door.

(This is an exact duplicate from the living room door.)

The stained glass was pretty, but not my style.

Now?

A simple clear piece of tempered glass.

It makes the entry so much brighter.

And is more accurate for the period of the house.

And much, much more our style.

And only $50 to do, and a big impact.

That living room door is next . . .

We hung some flag bunting for Memorial Day.

But I love them and don't plan to take them down yet.

I also love our ferns on the porch.

They're getting nice and full.

Next up?

Another new (to us) screen door for the front.

Random House Stuff

We've finally planted some flowers in our containers on the patio.  We're adding window boxes under the kitchen and breakfast room windows next weekend.

I painted this little chair and recovered the the seat.  The chair was Chris' when he was little, and it's been red for about 35 years.  I tried to find a picture of it when it was red but had no luck.

I spray painted it, and was really surprised at how good it looks.  I used leftover drop cloth material from my dining room curtains to cover the seat. 

We Chris finished painting the orange in the playroom this week.  We decided to just do one wall, and the rest will be a khaki color.  I just couldn't pull the trigger on a totally orange room.

We did a little framed art gallery of sorts with paintings, pictures, etc. that the boys have done in frames that I got at Goodwill on half-price Saturdays and then spray painted.  I love them, and it's probably my favorite part of this room thus far.

We also hung this chalkboard in the playroom.  It's a large painting that I got (also from Goodwill) and painted over with chalkboard paint.  Such an easy project, and I think cost $7.00. 

We hung a small metal pail underneath ($1 from the Dollar Spot at Target) and filled it with chalk.  I used sidewalk chalk instead of regular chalk, because it's more difficult for Jack to break. . . and hide everywhere. 

What projects have you been working on lately??